How Nvidia CEO became close to the US president

Armenian High-Tech Industry Minister Mkhitar Hayrapetyan said that cooperation on technologies began years ago, but Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan brought the partnership to a “new level of development.”

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Kazakhstan last week The Abraham Accords were signedA landmark agreement made during the first Trump administration to normalize ties between Israel and several Muslim-majority countries. The country also announced a US$2 billion ($3.1 billion) deal to develop AI data centers with Nvidia chips.

A US official said Nvidia chips played a minor role in the talks. But their inclusion in the discussions shows how AI and Nvidia have become tools for American diplomats and a president trying to compile peace agreements while campaigning for the Nobel Prize.

White House spokesman Kush Desai acknowledged Trump’s relationship with Huang but said, “No relationship defines Trump’s second presidency.”

“President Trump has close personal relationships with countless business leaders across diverse industries—relationships that benefit the American people as the administration works with businesses to secure historic deals,” he said.

Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said the company supports Trump’s efforts to produce more semiconductors in the United States. “Nvidia has always worked to help the government understand our technology, but we do not set U.S. export policy.”

During his first term, Trump expressed a similar fondness for Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, then the world’s most valuable public company.

But people close to him said the president is more focused on industries such as steel and autos and has little interest in advanced technology.

This was before Nvidia chips became the one thing AI projects couldn’t do without, and before Nvidia’s soaring share prices became a key component of stock portfolios.

Huang had good reason to cultivate a relationship with Trump. The president holds the key to Nvidia’s international and domestic regulations. It controls the licenses that allow Nvidia to sell to major markets like China, and can help the company’s customers access the electricity they need to power Nvidia’s chips.

White House policies helped Nvidia accelerate its business. The company reported quarterly profits above $30 billion for the first time on Wednesday [Thursday morning AEDT]It dwarfs the revenues reported by tech giants like Amazon and Apple.

Yet when Trump returned to the White House, his relationship with Huang was far from guaranteed. Huang had never spent much time in Washington and was one of several prominent tech executives to miss Trump’s inauguration in January.

About two weeks after the inauguration, Huang and the president struggled to connect when they first met in the Oval Office, said three people briefed on the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity. The second encounter at Mar-a-Lago also went badly, and Huang was unable to dissuade the president from banning some Nvidia chip sales to China.

But their relationship began to improve this spring after Huang pledged to invest heavily in U.S. factories.

In late April, Huang announced at a White House press conference that Nvidia and its suppliers would invest US$500 billion in US manufacturing. Days later, he joined the president on his first international trip and helped facilitate more than US$200 billion in chip sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Considering the agreement a victory, Trump began calling Huang “my friend.”

Trump said, “What a great job you’ve done.” During a speech in Saudi Arabia. “We are proud to see you in our country”

The Middle East agreements provide a template for using AI chips as a foreign policy tool, two people familiar with the administration’s strategy said. For years, the government has strengthened diplomatic ties with countries by selling US products such as Boeing planes. But the Trump administration has begun to fold on AI chips and partnerships.

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What endeared Huang to Trump was also Nvidia’s willingness to comply with the president’s hands-off approach to big companies, some of those people said. In August, Trump suggested the US government cut chip sales to China, to which Huang agreed.

Global demand for Nvidia chips has made Huang one of Trump’s regular travel companions. Ahead of a state dinner in England this fall, Trump mused that artificial intelligence was “taking over the world.” He then turned to Huang.

“You’re taking over the world, Jensen,” he said as he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a “Technology Prosperity Pact.” “We both hope you’re right.”

As Huang grew closer to Trump, he downplayed the national security risk of giving cutting-edge chips to China, alarming officials in Washington, including some of the president’s closest advisers. He argued that the alternative—Chinese companies building something just as good—would be much worse.

In late October, Huang returned to the Oval Office and presented Trump with a shiny, reflective silicon disk; this was among the first samples of Nvidia’s new AI chip produced in Arizona. This was in marked contrast to Trump’s experience with Apple, which had promised to invest in the United States for years but never produced a significant product domestically.

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The gift came as Huang lobbied the president to allow Nvidia to sell a version of its more advanced chip, known as Blackwell, to China. The company also asked Trump to help remove other obstacles to its business here.

A few days later, as the president flew to South Korea to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump started a firestorm by considering selling advanced chips to China. “We’re going to talk about Blackwell,” he told the media on October 29.

The statement sparked harsh reactions from lawmakers and Trump’s own advisers. Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, objected to the sales on national security grounds, two U.S. officials familiar with the discussions said.

On the return flight, Trump appeared to have turned the tables. He said he and Xi discussed chips but not “Blackwell.” In an interview on “60 Minutes,” Trump said no one “outside the United States” could have the “most advanced” chips.

The incident provided a snapshot of the limits of Huang’s bond with the president. And it showed that national security fears about China catching up with the United States in the race to develop artificial intelligence may, for now, outweigh the financial prospects of companies producing the technology.

This article was first published on: New York Times.

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